


Poison Onyx

by voleuse



Category: Chronicles of Riddick (2004), Firefly
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-01
Updated: 2009-06-01
Packaged: 2017-10-04 01:53:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>the killer steps barefoot and backwards to the abbey wall</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Poison Onyx

**Author's Note:**

> Set after _Serenity_. Title and summary adapted from Raymond McDaniel's _scorpion_.

There should have been some satisfaction in seeing the Alliance fall, but Zoe hadn't thought she'd see the whole system fall with it. World after world after world, eaten up and burnt down. Zoe watched through the glass of the bridge while River swung the ship around, spitting curses like half-digested rage.

She listened to Mal snap over the comms, and she calculated how much fuel they had, how long rations would last. How far they would have to fly before _they_ caught up, all sleek ships and smoke-blue trails.

Damn Necromongers.

Behind them, Ariel crumbled.

*

 

They sailed to Persephone next, landed in the dark and hoped they'd come down cold enough to avoid trackers. Kaylee watched them dispatch, whispered to be careful. Zoe nodded back, and River raised a pale arm in acknowledgment. Mal had wanted to join them, but he knew just as well as Zoe did how damn noisy he could be on a mission.

They stole across the miles of junkyard and crept into the city before dawn. River shivered as they slid from alley to alley. Zoe looked at her, raised an eyebrow.

River half-shrugged, her gun ticking across empty space like the point of a compass. "Their thoughts taste like snakes," she explained. "They don't like being held."

Zoe nodded, then inclined her head, trusting River would catch the direction.

They shifted across a ruined square, and Zoe swept the empty buildings and wondered if there was any intel worth finding anymore. She turned her head to locate River, and found the girl standing in the middle of the square, her form clear under the starlight. Zoe checked a shout, settled for a hiss of warning.

River turned her head and smiled. "Don't worry," she said, voice ringing against the piles of crumpled metal. Zoe heard the triple-tromp echo of a troop marching their way. River raised her arms. "They're what we're looking for."

Zoe looked about and saw three ways to exit clean, and another way that'd take some blood. She looked back at River, whose hands didn't tremble even as the Necromongers shouted, and she cursed and stepped forward, too.

*

 

They were shoved towards the main road, made to join the steady stumbling towards the Alliance's shining tower of justice. The tower was cracked, its windows shattered all across. Beside it, a frigate crouched, and Zoe let loose a quiet sigh at the absence of other ships, the grim row of transformed faces that had impaled Ariel before its fall.

The arched doors of the tower's entry were flung open, and Zoe heard screams leaking out. She brushed a hand quickly against the gun tucked under her vest, the blade strapped against her thigh. When the Necromongers had captured them, they hadn't fought, and the bastards hadn't bothered to take Zoe's weapons away. There was a second blade tucked into her boot, and she'd made sure to give River one, as well.

The screams died as they approached, and the familiar chanting began.

River paused in her walk, and Zoe drew up beside her. River tilted her head toward the frigate's base. "Think Simon'll let me keep it?" she asked. She reached out and clutched Zoe's hand, and when she let go, Zoe held a grenade.

"Maybe." Zoe looked ahead and saw only soldiers. They entered the tower, and it smelled of blood. "After all--"

"We keep what we kill," River muttered, that motto of the dead.

Zoe squared her shoulders, and River crouched. She thought loudly, counted to three, and together, they leapt into the ranks.


End file.
